Linux Mint XFCE volume buttons not working

[nbob]

Hello. I just installed Linux Mint XFCE (newly-released Debian Based OS)

My Problem is that I cannot get the volume buttons on my keyboard to work. I've done some research and it appears I need to install the "xfce4-volumed" package and I have done so. Still the buttons do not work. I've also tried installing xfce4 and also gstreamer. Nothing has worked.

[ramin.honary]

Check the "xfce4-mixer" program, check if it still works by fiddling with the volume control while you play some music. If that is working, it is definitely a keyboard shortcuts problem. If "xfce4-mixer" is working OK, you might be able to fix this by opening the keyboard shortcuts control panel and reset all shortcuts to their default settings.

[nbob]

Hi. I hope everything is going well for you.

I opened up xfce4-mixer and added the volume control "Master' to the display. I could take my mouse arrow and move the volume up and down on this control. But not with the actual volume keys on my keyboard. I also tried adding hotkeys to my keyboard for the volume controls (amixer set master 5+, amixer set master 5-, amixer set master toggle) Then I pressed the corresponding key on my keyboard and it appeared to work as the commands were added to the list. But the only keyboard control that works upon doing this was toggle (mute/unmute). Volume + and
Volume - keys still didn't work.

Thanks for all the help.

[ramin.honary]

Just a few details I need to check with you:

First: Have you installed "xfce4-xkb-plugin"?
One possible problem is that your X windows keyboard layout is wrong; X is the first program in your system that sees event information from the keyboard, and it re-packages key event information and delivers it to XFCE, Gnome, KDE, or whatever. The XFCE FAQ Page (under the heading "What should I do to change keyboard layout") has a brief explanation about this.

Second: I believe the default keyboard shortcut setting your volume keys to the following:

XF86AudioMute
XF86LowerVolume
XF86RaiseVolume

and that should be enough to get XFCE to do the right thing. Was your shortcuts set to this before and it still didn't work?

Third: using "amixer" is almost guaranteed to work, but are you sure you typed the "amixer" commands correctly when assigning your keyboard shortcuts?

#This is NOT correct:
amixer set master 5+

#Capitalized the word "master", try using "5%" instead of just "5"
amixer set Master 5%+
amixer set Master 5%-
#Using "5" without "%" will adjust volume by decibels, not by percent.

You can try these commands in a command line terminal. I use Ubuntu (its from the same group Mint) and I get an error if I don't capitalize "Master". Once you have checked if it works in the command line, assign these commands to your volume keys.

I hope everything is going well for you.

If you are referring to the earthquake/nuclear problem, Tokyo is far enough away from the where actual quake hit that we have been mostly unaffected, although I definitely felt the quake (our office building was evacuated when it happened). Thanks for your concern!

[nbob]

Thanks so much for the help.

The problem with my commands were just as you said. I had it programmed to decibels. Now its set to % and it works now.

[ramin.honary]

No problem.

Actually, amixer lets you set the volume by either decibels or by percent. I am pretty sure the problem was you did not capitalize the word "Master" in the command.

Just remember, in Linux most everything is Case Sensitive; when entering commands, be mindful of which letters are upper-case and which letters are lower-case.